But Sharon Cooney, temporary superintendent at Cleveland Police , said: “This practice has been an opportunity for criminals, wherever they are based, to exploit people and treat them as a commodity. This is an international trade.”

And referring to the scale of the operation, Supt Cooney continued: “This was a massive operation, involving a lot of Cleveland Police officers.

And explaining the impact on those smuggled into the UK, Mr Spoors continued: “From one point of view, it is a threat to the UK Border and demonstrating border vulnerability which we need to tackle.

“It is also exploitation by the organised crime group, of those migrants, who are coming to the UK. They aren’t offering a charitable service - they’re charging several thousands of pounds per migrant, so for a family of four that could be a lifetime worth of savings.”